French spacing conflicts with cleveref

Question

In this example I must choose between \cref{sec:bar} and French spacing (o/w disabled using \NoAutoSpace; I presume because sec:bar is read sec\thinspacing:bar. Is there a solution?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[french]{babel}
%\NoAutoSpacing
\usepackage{cleveref}

\begin{document}

\section{Foo}

bonjour: monde; oui? non! «aujourd'hui»

% Voir~\cref{sec:bar}

%(./debug-108.aux)
%! Missing \endcsname inserted.
%<to be read again> 
%                   \unskip 
%l.14 Voir~\cref{sec:bar}
%                        
%? 

\section{Bar}\label{sec:bar}

bonjour: monde; oui? non! « aujourd'hui »

\end{document}

$\NoAutospacing$

$\cref commented out$

better to avoid active characters in labels. use e.g. sec-bar or whatever instead. — cfr
– cfr, Commented 14 hours ago
The user guide of the cleveref package is up front in mentioning that active characters mustn’t be used in the arguments of \label and \cref instructions, and that this stricture very much applies to the : character if babel is loaded with french. — Mico
– Mico, Commented 11 hours ago

egreg · Accepted Answer · 2025-12-01 08:50:45Z

While \ref “sanitizes” its argument, so properly defined active babel shorthands will work in such argument, \cref doesn't.

You can add the sanitization yourself, but probably the best method is to avoid shorthands (in the case of French, punctuation marks) in labels.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[french]{babel}
\usepackage{newunicodechar} % for « and »
\usepackage{cleveref}

\newunicodechar{«}{\og\ignorespaces}
\newunicodechar{»}{\fg}

\NewCommandCopy{\originalcref}{\cref}

\ExplSyntaxOn
\cs_set_eq:Nc \__erwann_cref:nn { @cref }
\cs_generate_variant:Nn \__erwann_cref:nn {ne}
\cs_set_protected:cpn { @cref } #1 #2
 {
  \__erwann_cref:ne {#1} { \tl_to_str:n {#2} }
 }
\ExplSyntaxOff

\begin{document}

\section{Foo}

bonjour: monde; oui? non! «aujourd'hui» stop

Voir~\cref{sec:bar}

\section{Bar}\label{sec:bar}

bonjour: monde; oui? non! « aujourd'hui » stop

\end{document}

I also added code for making the guillemets to behave.

Explanation: \cref{<label>} does \@cref{cref}{<label>}, so this patch should work also for other related commands. Experiment.

this will disable handling of commands in the label name, so \cref{\blub} will no longer work. — Ulrike Fischer
– Ulrike Fischer, Commented 10 hours ago
@UlrikeFischer A slower routine could be used: process the argument token by token doing one step expansion and forming a string later. But… — egreg
– egreg, Commented 8 hours ago

Ulrike Fischer · Accepted Answer · 2025-12-01 10:33:12Z

cleveref uses \edef in a lots of places where it shouldn't.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[french]{babel}

\usepackage{cleveref}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd\@cref{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\@cref{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\@cref{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@stack@dropempty{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@stack@dropempty{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@processgroupall{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@processgroupall{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@processgroupall{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@stack@sort{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@stack@sort{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@stack@sort{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@processconsecutive{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@processconsecutive{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@processconsecutive{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@processconsecutive{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@processconsecutive{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@processconsecutive{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\patchcmd\cref@processconsecutive{\edef}{\protected@edef}{}{\fail}
\makeatother
\begin{document}

\section{Foo}

bonjour: monde; oui? non! «aujourd'hui»


 Voir~\cref{sec:bar}

\section{Bar}\label{sec:bar}


bonjour: monde; oui? non! « aujourd'hui »

\end{document}

The package cleveref hasn't been updated since 2018, are you aware of an alternative [for this task]? ctan.org/pkg/cleveref — Erwann
– Erwann, Commented 6 hours ago
I know that it hasn't been updated. Search for my recent answers for cleveref problems. An alternative is zref-clever. — Ulrike Fischer
– Ulrike Fischer, Commented 6 hours ago

jlab · Accepted Answer · 2025-12-01 09:02:20Z

3

If I'm not mistaken, babel-french doesn't use active characters with lualatex. You should maybe consider using it.

Example, without errors if compiled with lualatex:

\documentclass[french]{article}

\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{cleveref}

\begin{document}

\section{Foo}

bonjour: monde; oui? non! «aujourd'hui»

Voir~\cref{sec:bar}

\section{Bar}\label{sec:bar}

bonjour: monde; oui? non! « aujourd'hui »

\end{document}

answered 11 hours ago

jlab

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Erwann · Accepted Answer · 2025-12-01 06:02:39Z

0

Since I was circling around the obvious myself, I think it's worth posting the answer in the comments: "avoid active characters in labels".

answered 14 hours ago

Erwann

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